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Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1389-5575
ISSN (Online): 1875-5607

Chitosan Micro- and Nanospheres: Fabrication and Applications for Drug and DNA Delivery

Author(s): Andrea Masotti and Giancarlo Ortaggi

Volume 9, Issue 4, 2009

Page: [463 - 469] Pages: 7

DOI: 10.2174/138955709787847976

Price: $65

Abstract

Polysaccharides and other cationic polymers have been recently used in pharmaceutical research and industry for their properties to control the release of antibiotics, DNA, proteins, peptide drugs or vaccines. They have been also extensively studied as non viral DNA carriers for gene delivery and therapy. Chitosan is one of the most used since it can promote long-term release of incorporated drugs. Here, we reviewed the recent literature on the preparation of chitosan micro- and nanospheres using different manufacturing processes (nanofabrication). Moreover, the preparation of chitosan and chitosan/DNA nanospheres using a novel and simple osmosis-based method has been recently reported. This novel nanofabrication method may be a useful alternative to obtain small DNA-containing nanospheres (38 ± 4 nm) for biomedical applications. The reported method has general applicability to various synthetic or natural biopolymers. Solvent, temperature and membrane cut-off are the physicochemical parameters able to control the overall osmotic process leading to obtain several nanostructured systems with different size and shape that may be used in several biotechnological applications.

Keywords: Chitosan, cationic polymers, nanospheres, microspheres, gene delivery, DNA


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